And The Beat Goes On

"What now?" he asked. His voice choked out raw and wavering as if the words had been ripped from the shards of his broken heart whole.

"Why do you always have to make it so hard for us to get along?" I asked.

"Why do you?" he snapped back with a spirit that I thought I'd long ago taken from him. I'd been right in my assessment of his status. I'd pushed him too far. If I didn't handle this correctly, I could lose him. I wished then that I'd taken that shower but I'd have to push on anyway.

"John, I meant what I said earlier. I meant all of it, but then I started thinking about it. It's been so long for me that I don't know how to do this anymore, any of it," I said.

"You don't know how to do what?" he asked.

"All of this relationship crap," I snapped. "John, I've been in one relationship for my whole fucking life. I've had to realize that it's gone...done with...over...finito. Tommy has moved on with his life. I no longer matter to him. I don't factor in his decision making process at all. It's time for me to move on too. Only the whole thing confuses me. There are soooo many things that I don't understand. I don't really have any idea of what I'm feeling. I know that I feel closer to you than to anyone else but I don't really know how to classify those feelings." He snapped his eyes towards me then and I knew I had him back on the hook.

"That's why I told you all of that stuff on the phone, because I really wanted to see where we fit. I mean, I know what I hoped for but I don't know how you feel," I said. I could tell he was eating this shit up with a spoon.

"Melinda, you've always known how I feel about you," he said softly.

"BULLSHIT!" I yelled. He was so shocked by me screaming that he turned to look at me. I snapped the switch on and flooded the room with light. "That's the same fucking thing that Tommy told me for most of my life," I screamed. "And where the fuck is he right now? He's probably at home in that mansion of his with my dick buried in that red headed whore. I loved him for most of my life, Fogerty. I gave him everything I could and I made one mistake and he kicked me to the curb. I'm not perfect Fogerty. I'm just a normal human woman. I fuck up from time to time."

"Melinda, we're all human. We all make mistakes," he said. "I'd never..." he began.

"You already did, Fogerty," I said. "You judged me by what you thought you saw tonight. You never even tried to find out what was going on."

"I was hurt," he said.

"And you deserved to be," I snapped. I had him on the defensive now. It was time to push home my point.

"Fogerty, do you know what the most important thing in a relationship is to a woman?" I asked.

"How the fuck would I know that," he asked.

"Take a guess," I said. Before he could answer, I cut him off. "It's feeling loved. Then comes feeling sexy or desired by her mate." I let the words sink in.

"Fogerty, to a man, sex comes before all of those things. I haven't had sex in over three years and even then except for what happened outside of that club the only man I'd ever slept with was Tommy. You've been fucking that whore every once in a while and that Polish woman too. Neither of them looks like me." I saw the shock on his face that I knew about his sex life.

"Fogerty, both of those women are large breasted and I'm not. I'm also out of practice. I just needed to find out if I could still turn a man on. And I needed to do it before you and I uh..." His sharp intake of air let me know I'd scored big points.

"You've built this thing with us up in your head so much that I just felt like if I didn't knock your socks off you'd feel like all of the time we've been together was wasted," I said. And then I turned on the water works and started bawling. He crossed the room like a beam of fucking light to start hugging me and brushing my tears away.

"It's okay, Honey," he said softly.

"No it's not," I cried. "All of the women you fuck have big tits and big asses. I won't measure up."

"You more than measure up," he said. "You've got something that none of them have. Melinda, you have my heart. You always have and you always will."

"Are you sure?" I asked. He nodded.

"I'm very sure," he said. "There are no doubts in my mind." I reached up then and kissed him. It was the first time we'd ever kissed. And I felt nothing. I have a framed picture of Tommy that I keep in my dresser drawer. I took the picture two years ago just after he married that whore. It was from a distance away and taken with a telephoto lens, but I kiss that picture every night. I got more aroused from kissing that picture than I had from Fogerty or from Lucas for that matter, but Fogerty was all in.

"Take me Fogerty," I whispered. "Wipe my memories out. Make me yours." He started licking my breasts, what there were of them. Men are so easy to read. He started from my tiny tits because he wanted me to know that it didn't matter to him that they weren't big. He licked and sucked my sweaty little body all over.

"Eat me Fogerty," I gushed, pretending that I was overcome with lust. Actually, I was becoming aroused thinking about how nasty it was to make Fogerty eat me while the remnants of Luke's sperm were still in me. I wondered if he'd really do something that nasty.

Even as his head descended towards my pussy, I knew he would. He was inches away from it and then he looked up at me. I knew he had to be smelling a very foul combination of stale pussy juice, sperm and sweat. "Mel, maybe you should take a shower first," he said quietly. "Uhm, his stuff is still in you."

I was pissed. "Fuck you, Fogerty," I screamed. "We couldn't have a nice first time, could we? You had to go and ruin it." I got up quickly and ran back to my room where I slammed the door and pretended to cry.

"I'm sorry, Melinda," I heard Fogerty saying through the door. "I'll do it." I was laughing my ass off. Over the next few days, Fogerty would be kissing my ass trying to get back in my good graces. And I, of course, would let him. Training a puppy is so hard sometimes, but it is rewarding.

* * * * * *

Fogerty

As usual, it was the headache that woke me. That relentless pounding in my temples only seemed to have worsened after last night's drama. Sometimes I wondered why the fuck I bother to open my eyes when it would be so much easier not to. I lay there thinking about that and other things.

The one person I thought I could someday count on, my hopes for a future someday, was not only bat shit crazy but had other issues as well. I'm not sure how much of her routine I bought last night but I told her what she wanted to hear. This is all like some twisted dance we do, each of us responds to the other's moves and then we circle to watch the results of the latest play. Was it even remotely possible that Melinda was telling the truth last night? Or was she simply playing some kind of head games with me?

While she was in therapy, her doctor had confided in me that the breakup of Melinda's marriage had been a very traumatic experience for her. It had been far more damaging to her than under normal circumstances. Most experts believe that the stress of losing a spouse to divorce is, in some cases, as severe as losing them to death. Melinda's well-being had been tied to Tommy for most of her life. Even in therapy, he had been unable to convince her that it was necessary for her mental state to accept the fact that she and Tommy were no longer together.

Melinda had complained that she didn't like the therapist and moron that I am, I decided to let her opt out of further counseling because she didn't think it was necessary any longer. It had been true that the main thrust of the therapy had been to stop her from drinking, but obviously there were still issues there that needed to be resolved.

I just needed to figure out what she'd been trying to tell me. Was last night's performance, her way of letting me know that she could get another man if she needed to? Or was it something else?

I never got to think about it any further because the ringing of my cell phone seemed to mix in with the pounding of my headache and the combined cacophony forced me to open my eyes and give the phone the attention it sought.

"Hello," I said. The raspy sound in my voice should have been enough to dissuade all but the most determined of callers from bothering me.

"John, It's me. I'll meet you at the hospital in twenty minutes. And uhm... you may be getting a call soon," he said.

"What call Tommy?" I asked. Before he could answer my door opened and Melinda stood there wide eyed. So much for her getting over him.

"I'll fill you in on what's going on while we're at the hospital," he said. "I'll wait for you there."

"Tommy, don't speed trying to get there. The last thing you need is an accident," I said. "Take your time and get there safely."

"Fogerty, I've been here since six this morning waiting for the shift to start," he said. "I couldn't just sit around and do nothing. I've tried to think about everything she told me over the past month or so and there's been nothing. I can't think of anyone who doesn't like Julia."

"I'll see you there in a few," I said. I could tell by his voice that he was distraught. At the same time, he seemed to be extremely focused. I think that had more to do with his military training kicking in. Tommy was in mission mode now and he was trying to get things done. I was sure that he hadn't gone home and just took care of his daughter. Tommy was very motivated to solve this and get Julia back.

"Were you just talking to Tommy?" asked Melinda. She was trying to cover up her interest, but the way she'd burst into the room told me everything I needed to hear.

I nodded my head. "What's wrong with him?" she asked. "Did he get robbed or is he just donating another building or something?"

"Melinda, you know I don't discuss open cases with anyone," I told her.

"Fuck you Fogerty," she spat. "Every time I try to do something to bring us closer like discussing your job, you push me away." She stormed off.

Twenty minutes, a shower and two donuts later, I arrived at the hospital. Tommy's one of a kind Mustang was there and it was parked next to his red Mustang GT. Julia usually drove the red one. As I got near the car, Tommy got out and practically ran over to me. I could tell that he hadn't been asleep at all since I last saw him. It made me feel kind of lazy.

We went into the hospital and started talking to the staff. The last person to have seen Julia was one of her best friends at the hospital, Kate Case, the director of nursing.

Kate was an older woman who'd been an army nurse and had done several combat tours. She was short and thick with short black hair and piercing blue eyes. She took one look at Tommy and her serious visage went away.

"Are you coming in here to tell me that you think you did it? Or are you coming in here to tell me that Julia has decided to retire and just be a rich wife?" she asked.

Tommy smiled back at her and was trying to be polite but I could tell there were things he had to know. "This is Detective John Fogerty," he said introducing me. The woman looked at me and something passed between us. She wasn't a raving beauty. As I said before, she was short and thick but she wasn't unattractive. Her short hair actually framed her face rather well. She was probably in her early fifties and..."

"Earth to Fogerty," yelled Tommy.

"Oh uhm, where were we?" I asked.

"I was just telling Kate that we were going to need to ask her some questions," said Tommy.

"Oh yeah," I said. "When was the last time you saw Julia and what kind of mood was she in?" Tommy looked at me strangely.

"Sorry Tommy, but I need to establish the frame of mind she was in when she disappeared. Who knows, when you work around sick people and dying people all day long it has to do something to you. Maybe she was depressed," I said.

"You're saying she was so depressed that she just walked off and left me and our child?" yelled Tommy. I was shocked. It wasn't like him to get upset.

"Well, gentlemen," said Kate. "I can assure you that isn't the case here. Julia loves what she does here. She helps to make sick people well. And yes, there is some sadness when we occasionally lose a patient, but for the most part we get to see people get better. We also get to see babies come into the world. We get to see a lot of joy as well as the pain." She looked at me in particular and I found it hard to turn away.

"Detective...Fogerty was it?" She asked and I nodded. "Julia wasn't even slightly depressed. When she left here yesterday, she waved at me when she passed my office and stopped to talk for a moment. She had that same smile she always had on her way home. The smile that let you know that she couldn't wait to get there. Her last words to me were that she was going home to fuck her husband's brains out and start on another baby. That doesn't sound depressed to me."

I noticed that Tommy's face was turning red.

"Relax Tommy, everybody already knows that you and Julia are doing it. You're married for heaven's sake, it's a good thing," I said.

Tommy's cell phone rang then. I heard part of the conversation before he lowered the volume. I had heard something about the slowest, dumbest cop in the universe before he covered the earpiece.

He looked back at me and shrugged his shoulders. "Thanks Kate," he said and he got ready to leave. I was confused.

"Uhm Thanks, Mrs. Uhm..." I began.

"You can call me Kate," she said.

Tommy was insistent. "Come on Fogerty. We have to go," he said. He pulled me out of the room and back into the elevator. We walked through the building and out into the parking lot. We went back over to his car. His hands never went into his pockets but as he got near the car the doors popped open. I just looked at him.

"Jeezus Fogerty, it's a proximity fob. I keep it in my pocket. As soon as I get near the car, it responds to it. If I move away from the car it locks again and arms the alarm. Get in. There's something coming. "

We got into the car. It was the thickest softest leather I've ever touched. The carpet in that car was nicer than the carpet in my fucking house.

"What's with you and Kate?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"She smiled at you," he said. "She was practically flirting with you. I've never seen her do that before."

"She's a nice lady," I said. "And she's kind of cute." He looked at me like I was on drugs.

"Don't you already have one woman at home?" he asked.

"Tommy, are you still carrying a torch for Melinda?" I asked.

"Of course not," he spat. "I'm happily married, but Melinda was my first love so there will always be something there."

His phone beeped and then beeped twice again. I looked at him for clarification. "I just got the email we've been waiting for," he said. "My phone and my car are linked. The second beep was the car telling us we can open the email on the screen."

He opened the email and scrolled over to an attachment. He nodded his head and viewed the attachment. It showed the hospital and then the parking lot that we stood in. In the top right corner a counter gave the time the video was shot.

The video showed two men dragging or carrying a sluggish woman and putting her into a car. The woman was sluggish as if she'd been drugged but clearly still alive. The screen split into two pictures and I pushed the pause button.

"Tommy, where the fuck did you get this? This is the hospital's security footage. Someone went through it and pulled out exactly what we need. I can't get this footage without a warrant unless the hospital is extremely cooperative," I said. Tommy looked at me and just shrugged his shoulders. He obviously wasn't talking. I started the video again.

The split screen rendition of the video was incredible. It scanned and located the faces and blew them up. In front of one of the men's faces it read no record found. It captured the second man's face and immediately identified him and gave details from his prison record. I could easily track him through the police files now that I had a name. I recognized the software that did this. No police department in the country had software like this. This was FBI/CIA type stuff. I wondered who the fuck Tommy had working with him. The comment the guy made over the phone about the slowest, dumbest cop in the universe came back to me. Shit, if I had access to stuff like that, I'd be better and faster too.

"I'll track this guy Josh through his police record," I said. Tommy nodded. "Look Tommy, they're obviously keeping her alive. I don't know why they haven't contacted you about a ransom or any demands yet. Maybe they're trying to make you sweat. But I guarantee you with this kind of information...this was a big break. We'll find her."

"Fogerty, I'm trying to do this the right way," he said. "That's why I called the police in general and called you specifically. The first call I made to the department, they told me I had to wait twenty four hours before they could do anything. We still have almost eight hours before they'll begin the search. You're on the case and working already. But I can only give you a couple of more hours. After that, who knows what will happen. But I can guarantee you it won't be nice. And if she's harmed in any way..."

Tommy was still very calm as he looked at me and as he spoke. I also realized that he meant every word he was saying. Then something came back to me that I'd forgotten about. Back during the time that Tommy and Melinda were going through their divorce there were a bunch of random men killed. They'd been killed, but in a variety of different ways and with different weapons. Just tracing the bullets showed that not one of them had been killed with the same gun or type of gun. Some were killed at close range, others from a distance like a sniper would do. All of the evidence pointed towards different individuals. We'd been thorough but Tommy was in custody during one of the killings and in court during another, so his whereabouts proved that he hadn't done either.

But with his military background, it wouldn't be very hard to imagine that some of his former military buddies might have done it for him. And in this case, maybe some of those military buddies were either working for the intelligence community or just had access to their tech. Some of those guys were whack jobs, there's no telling how far they might want to take this.

I realized, all of a sudden, that Tommy wasn't asking me to hurry up and try to solve this in a couple of hours because he was going to go crazy. He was already crazy with worry over Julia. He was warning me that in a couple of hours he was going to let his dogs loose.

I shuddered to think of what could happen on my streets with a bunch of possibly rogue military types turned loose. Tommy wouldn't care about collateral damage or who got caught in the crossfire. He wouldn't care about due process. He would only care about getting Julia back at any cost. He would only care about his daughter getting to see her mommy again. What I'd originally thought was Tommy pleading with me to solve the case quickly was actually a warning. Somehow, the warning also seemed to be directed at me personally.

He had looked directly at me and told me that he could only give ME a couple of more hours.

My headache got worse. I was sure that anyone looking at me could see the pulsing in my temples. I got out of the car and told him to just hold on. I told him I'd do the best I could. As he closed the door and drove off, my mind was whirling in a thousand different directions all at the same time.

Why the fuck would Tommy come to me specifically? With his money, his juice and the fact that the city's top lawyer was a personal friend of his, he could have had all of the cops on the force walking the streets looking for Julia. Tie that in with the fact that with all of the donations he and Julia had given the city and the PD and Fire departments over the last few years, everyone would want to pitch in.